At the time of full-year results in February, Quartix (QTX) boss Andy Walters said he wanted to prioritise growth in fleet contracts over insurance business. The reason being that fleet business is both higher margin and comes with longer-term visibility. And that’s precisely what's happened during the first half of the financial year. Fleet revenue grew 10 per cent to £9.1m, with the number of customers for its vehicle tracking system up by the same proportion to 12,035. Overall, the group took on 7 per cent more subscriptions to reach 112,530 vehicles, helping to lift recurring revenue by 11 per cent to £8.4m.
Mr Walters said the insurance business will now focus solely on contracts that management feel "appropriately value" the group’s services and technology. As a result, insurance sales were understandably flat on last year at £3.8m and the proportion of revenue from this division is shrinking. The shift towards higher-margin fleet business also boosted group gross margins by 2 per cent to 65 per cent.
Analysts at FinnCap expect pre-tax profits of £7.4m during 2018, giving EPS of 13.1p, compared with £7.1m and 13.1p in 2017.
| QUARTIX (QTX) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 367p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 175m | |
| TOUCH: | 360-374p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 381p | LOW: 329p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 1.8% | PE RATIO: | 30 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 31p* | NET CASH: | £4.9m | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2017** | 12.1 | 3.8 | 6.87 | 2.4 |
| 2018 | 12.9 | 3.9 | 6.89 | 2.4 |
| % change | +7 | +2 | +0 | - |
| Ex-div: | 16 Aug | |||
| Payment: | 14 Sep | |||
| *Includes intangible assets of £14m, or 29p per share **Restated | ||||
